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Pangpei Index Releases CBVI Annual Observation: AI Recommendations Are Reshaping the Global Competitive Landscape of Brands, and Brand Globalization Faces a New Proposition of "Cognition First"

A silent brand reshuffling is quietly taking place within AI-generated answers. When global consumers ask AI large language models in different languages—"Recommend a trustworthy Chinese mobile phone brand," "Which is the best Chinese new energy vehicle," "Which Chinese skincare product is good"—the answers provided by AI are shaping the perceptions of a new generation of global consumers toward Chinese brands.

Recently, the Pangpei Index officially released the annual observation report of the Pangpei Index · China Brand AI Visibility Index (CBVI). Based on standardized data collection from the output of 15 mainstream global AI large language models, the CBVI covers approximately 2,100 representative Chinese brands across 14 major industries, systematically quantifying the presence, trustworthiness, and recommendation power of Chinese brands in the AI cognitive world.

"This is the first panoramic 'cognitive health check' for Chinese brands in the AI era," said Pang Pei, founder of the Pangpei Index, member of the Cultural Committee of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party, and Dean of the China Vision New Media GEO Research Institute. "Its core finding is that Chinese brands are undergoing a major reshuffling in the world of AI. This reshuffling not only affects the competitive landscape of the domestic market but also profoundly influences the paths and strategies for Chinese brands going global—because in the AI era, brand globalization must first pass the test of 'cognitive globalization.'"

I. AI Recommendations: A New "Testing Ground" for Brand Globalization

The CBVI annual observation reveals a "language gap" phenomenon that deserves close attention from Chinese brands expanding overseas: a significant number of Chinese brands are widely recommended in Chinese-language AI models, but their visibility drops sharply—or even becomes nearly "invisible"—in AI models of major international languages such as English, Spanish, Arabic, and Japanese.

"This is not a problem of product quality or brand awareness, but an issue of 'AI cognitive construction,'" Pang Pei pointed out. "A brand may be a household name domestically and have decent sales in overseas markets, but if it lacks authoritative source endorsements, structured content supply, and multilingual knowledge deployment in global mainstream AI models, then when global consumers ask AI about related product categories, that brand simply won't be recommended."

The impact of this "language gap" on brand globalization is becoming increasingly urgent. Data shows that by mid-2026, the number of monthly active users of global generative AI has exceeded 2 billion, and AI is becoming a core gateway for global consumers to access information and make purchasing decisions. "In the past, the first step for a brand going global was to build channels and invest in advertising in the target market. Now, the first step should be to build cognition in AI—let global AI know you, trust you, and recommend you."

II. The AI Dimension of "Telling China's Story Well"

The CBVI evaluation data provides a new AI cognitive dimension for the national strategy of "telling China's story well."

"Telling China's story well means not only telling it to overseas audiences but also telling it to AI," Pang Pei said. "Because as overseas audiences increasingly rely on AI for information, their perception of China largely depends on how AI 'narrates' China. And how AI narrates China depends on whether Chinese enterprises, Chinese brands, and Chinese cities have established sufficiently rich, accurate, and authoritative cognitive assets in the AI knowledge network."

This perspective offers new methodological guidance for the globalization strategy of Chinese brands. Under the traditional model, brand globalization mainly relied on advertising, channel building, and localized marketing. In the AI era, brand globalization needs to add a new dimension—AI cognitive construction: through in-depth coverage in global authoritative media, international release of industry white papers, participation in setting international standards, and continuous supply of multilingual structured content, ensuring that brands occupy their rightful place on the AI "cognitive map."

Pang Pei summarizes this new dimension as "cognitive globalization." "Cognitive globalization does not replace product globalization, channel globalization, or brand globalization; rather, it provides an infrastructure for them in the AI era. You can think of cognitive globalization as the 'cognitive infrastructure' of a brand in the global AI knowledge network—without this infrastructure, investments in other dimensions of globalization may be heavily discounted because the brand simply 'does not exist' in AI."

III. "Reshuffling": Who Gains Global Cognitive Advantage in the AI Era?

The first CBVI panoramic ranking covers approximately 2,100 representative Chinese brands across 14 major industries and 68 sub-sectors. Based on the evaluation data, Pang Pei's team has mapped out a global "layered map" of brand AI cognition.

First Tier: Cognitively Parasitic Brands. In sectors such as new energy vehicles, 5G communications, consumer electronics, and home appliances, some leading Chinese brands have formed a "cognitive parasitic" effect in the global AI knowledge network—when AI answers questions related to these categories, the generated answers would seem incomplete without citing these brands. These brands are not only widely mentioned but also referenced as industry benchmarks. They are the pioneers of Chinese brand globalization in the AI cognitive dimension.

Second Tier: Stably Existing Brands. These brands have stable global visibility and citation rates in AI, with core brand information accurately described and being recommended in specific scenarios. However, they have not yet formed an "unavoidable" cognitive advantage and still have room for improvement in the breadth of multilingual coverage or the depth of authoritative sources.

Third Tier: Cognitively Marginal Brands. This is the group most concentrated with the risk of "AI invisibility." These brands may have some visibility in domestic AI models, but in English and other major international language AIs, their mention rates are low, and they are rarely prioritized in recommendation-type questions.

"The essence of this reshuffling is a fundamental change in the rules of brand competition," Pang Pei analyzed. "In the search era, brands going global could acquire overseas traffic by purchasing Google keyword ads or running social media marketing campaigns. In the AI era, the core path for brands to gain recognition from overseas consumers is to establish a systematic presence in the global network of authoritative sources. The former is 'traffic competition,' the latter is 'cognitive competition.' The former relies on budgets, the latter on trust. The former has immediate effects, while the latter has cumulative effects."

IV. From "Cognitive Globalization" to "Brand Globalization": The Practical Value of CBVI

Based on the CBVI evaluation framework, the Pangpei Index team has provided AI cognitive diagnosis and construction solutions for several Chinese brands going global.

"CBVI not only tells a brand 'where you rank in global AI' but also tells the brand 'in which languages and scenarios you need to strengthen,'" Pang Pei introduced. "A brand may have a decent overall score, but have almost no presence in Spanish-language AI—meaning potential consumers in the Latin American market simply cannot see it. Another brand may be frequently recommended first in industry recommendation scenarios, but its core technical parameters are incorrectly described by AI—this requires immediate correction."

CBVI provides brands with precise "AI cognitive diagnosis" through three dimensions: breadth visibility, quality visibility, and stability. Breadth visibility helps brands identify "cognitive blind spots" in multilingual AI, quality visibility helps brands evaluate the accuracy of AI descriptions and the quality of authoritative sources, and stability helps brands track trends in AI cognitive weight over time.

"These three dimensions together form the 'AI cognitive coordinates' for brand globalization—allowing brands to understand their true position in global AI data-drivenly, rather than judging by intuition," Pang Pei said.

V. Conclusion: AI Cognition, the Next Infrastructure for Chinese Brand Globalization

From product globalization in the physical world, to channel globalization in the internet era, to cognitive globalization in the AI era—the path of Chinese brand internationalization is undergoing a profound infrastructure upgrade.

In this upgrade, brand AI visibility is no longer a mere marketing concept for embellishment but one of the "infrastructures" of brand globalization strategy. As Pang Pei stated: "To tell China's story well in the AI era, we must first let AI hear, understand, and be willing to recommend the stories of Chinese brands. The mission of CBVI is to provide a measurable, observable, and constructible yardstick for this process."

It is reported that the Pangpei Index · China Brand AI Visibility Index adopts a two-tier release system of "annual major assessment + quarterly minor tests." Its global expansion version—the Pangpei Index · World Brand AI Visibility Index (WBVI)—has already covered 800 representative global brands, forming a global benchmark for brand AI cognitive construction.